Intel promises significant price cuts across the board in preperation for dual-core ramp

Previously, DailyTech revealed a number of changes that will be taking place with Intel's family of desktop processors: Pentium 4 processors will drop down to roughly 30% of Intel's overall desktop processor shipments and Pentium D processors falling to 45% of desktop sales.

Core 2 Duo processors will be introduced on July 23 of this year and, according to Intel's estimates, and will be accompanied by the new 96x "Broadwater" chipset. According to Intel's updated roadmap, Core 2 processors will expand to roughly 35% of Intel's shipments in Q1'07.
Conroe, as the desktop version of Core 2 Duo is dubbed, will be the first Intel processor with the new letter/number naming schedule, as noted below.

Intel has dropped desktop processor prices throughout the year. Many of the Pentium D processors have seen anywhere from $30 cuts to more than 50% price cuts. All entry level Celeron 300-series desktop processors from Intel will be priced well under $80 by the time Q4'06 comes around.

Intel Desktop Processor Roadmap for Dual Core Without VT

ProcessorBrand

Processor Number

Clock SpeedFSB

Cache

Price Now

Price @ Launch

PDP

945

3.4GHz / 800MHz

2x2MB

N/A

$163 (23-Jul)

PDP

925

3.0GHz / 800MHz

2z2MB

N/A

$133 (Q4'06)

PDP

915

2.8GHz / 800MHz

2x2MB

N/A

$133 (23-Jul)

Intel will also be launching VT-disabled Preslers laster on this year with the 945, 925 and 915 series. VT, or Virtualization Technology allows virtual operating systems running on VMs such as VMWare or Parallels Desktop to access processor ops directly. The mainstream Pentium 4 processors with 2MB and 1MB caches will also see significant price drops. For example, a Pentium 4 661 (LGA775) processors running at 3.6GHz with 2MB of L2 cache will be priced at $183 on the 23rd of July. Right now, the same processor sells for $401.

Intel Desktop Processor Roadmap for Single Core

ProcessorBrand

Processor Number

Clock SpeedFSB

Cache

Price Now

Price on 23-Jul

P4P

661

3.6GHz / 800MHz

2MB

$401

$183

P4P

651

3.4GHz / 800MHz

2MB

$273

$163

P4P

641

3.2GHz / 800MHz

2MB

$218

$163

P4P

631

3.0GHz / 800MHz

2MB

$178

$163

P4P

541

3.2GHz / 800MHz

1MB

$218

$84

P4P

531

3.0GHz / 800MHz

1MB

$178

$74

P4P

524

3.06GHz / 533MHz

1MB

$143

$69

All of Intel's single core processors see significant price drops across the board. According to Intel's roadmaps, dual core ramp will accelerate after July 23rd. Core 2 Duo will become Intel's flagship processor while Woodcrest takes the helm for enterprise and server level performance in 2007.